Trump Foundation faces off against New York AG in court

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Thu Oct 25, 2018, 11:58 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: CNN via WPLG, channel 10 in Miami

Trump Foundation faces off against New York AG in court

Suit alleges charity broke campaign finance laws

By ERICA ORDEN, CNN

Posted: 6:57 AM, October 25, 2018
Updated: 6:57 AM, October 25, 2018

(CNN) - The New York attorney general's office and lawyers for President Donald Trump's charitable foundation are set to face off in court Thursday over the state's civil lawsuit that alleges the charity violated campaign finance laws and abused its tax-free status. ... In State Supreme Court in Manhattan, a judge is set to hear oral arguments in the Trump team's effort to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in June.

The suit alleges that the Donald J. Trump Foundation and its directors -- including Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Jr. and his daughter Ivanka -- violated federal and state charities law with a "persistent" pattern of conduct that included unlawful coordination with the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

At times during the presidential race, the lawsuit alleges, for example, Trump campaign staffers were permitted to direct the charity's expenditures, and in certain cases those expenditures appeared to benefit groups that were politically valuable to the then-candidate.

The attorney general's office, led by Barbara Underwood, is seeking to dissolve the Trump Foundation and wants $2.8 million in restitution, plus additional penalties. The office is also seeking to ban Trump from serving as a director of any New York nonprofit for 10 years and to prohibit the other board members, the Trump children, from serving for one year.

Read more: https://www.local10.com/news/politics/trump-foundation-faces-off-against-new-york-ag-in-court

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David Fahrenthold is tweeting a running account of the testimony.

https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

Good morning from Courtroom 208 in NYC! I’m here to cover a lawsuit alleging @realDonaldTrump used a charity as his personal piggy bank. 1/

Link to tweet

The hearing starts at 10:30 Eastern. I'll keep you updated...5/

Link to tweet

-- -- -- --

https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Trump-Foundation-Faces-NY/244899

ARTICLE

OCTOBER 25, 2018

Trump Foundation Faces N.Y. Attorney General in Court: Daily News Roundup
Top News

Trump Foundation Faces Off Against New York AG in Court Thursday (CNN)

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/25/politics/trump-foundation-lawsuit/index.html

By Erica Orden, CNN

Updated 8:33 AM ET, Thu October 25, 2018

New York (CNN) -- The New York attorney general's office and lawyers for President Donald Trump's charitable foundation are set to face off in court Thursday over the state's civil lawsuit that alleges the charity violated campaign finance laws and abused its tax-free status.

In State Supreme Court in Manhattan, a judge is set to hear oral arguments in the Trump team's effort to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in June.

The suit alleges that the Donald J. Trump Foundation and its directors -- including Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Jr. and his daughter Ivanka -- violated federal and state charities law with a "persistent" pattern of conduct that included unlawful coordination with the 2016 Trump presidential campaign. ... At times during the presidential race, the lawsuit alleges, for example, Trump campaign staffers were permitted to direct the charity's expenditures, and in certain cases those expenditures appeared to benefit groups that were politically valuable to the then-candidate.

The attorney general's office, led by Barbara Underwood, is seeking to dissolve the Trump Foundation and wants $2.8 million in restitution, plus additional penalties. The office is also seeking to ban Trump from serving as a director of any New York nonprofit for 10 years and to prohibit the other board members, the Trump children, from serving for one year.
....

[groundloop]

1. "Trump Foundation" - aka Tiny's private slush fund

[Bfd]

2. Is this under the same Manhatten judge that dropped Jarvanka's charges???

What is his name again?
I hope this isn't being heard by this same judge !
He is a Ttumper.

[Qutzupalotl]

7. You're probably thinking of Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance, Jr. n/t

[Bfd]

10. Yes. Cyrus Vance. Better not be him

SNIP

..in 2012, Vance ordered his prosecutors to drop a promising criminal-fraud investigation against Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr., who were suspected of misleading potential buyers of condos in the Trump SoHo building; the order came after their father’s attorney, Marc Kasowitz, paid Vance a visit.
Soon after Vance’s office dropped the investigation, Kasowitz donated and raised a combined total of more than fifty thousand dollars for Vance’s reëlection campaign.[/b]

Immediately on the heels of those revelations came explosive reports, in this magazine and in the Times, of the film executive Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment and assault of multiple women in the course of three decades.

The reports spurred new scrutiny of the D.A.’s decision, in 2015, not to arrest and prosecute Weinstein for a misdemeanor sex crime, based on Ambra Battilana Gutierrez’s contemporaneous report to police that he groped her without her consent in his Tribeca office. Weinstein’s defense attorneys included Vance’s former law partner Elkan Abramowitz, who was also a donor to his campaign. Weinstein’s attorney David Boies (who did not represent Weinstein in the criminal matter) also donated to Vancein 2015

From The New Yorker October 2017
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-didnt-manhattan-da-cyrus-vance-prosecute-the-trumps-or-harvey-weinstein

[louis c]

3. Lock up every one of those Trump family members

[ancianita]

4. The "suing a sitting president" argument shouldn't stand. The AG's suing the organization.

[Maeve]

6. And isn't he supposed to have stepped away from his companies?

Big pile of binders and folders...? Ok, so they still had the price stickers on them, but...

[ancianita]

8. He only recently left being head of the org when he learned of his legal jeopardy. Typical.

[vlyons]

5. 10 years isn't nearly long enough to ban Trump from a NY non-profit

nor his 1 year for his kids. Doesn't NY law have jail penalties for this fraud? If convicted, would it be a felony conviction?

[progressoid]

9. Expect a settlement behind closed doors (like Trump U) and this will soon be forgotten by the public

or overshadowed by another affront to America by the orange Klan.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. Hearing over. No decision yet. Judge skeptical of Trump's call to dismiss suit, but....

Hearing over. No decision yet. Judge skeptical of Trump’s call to dismiss suit, but waiting for an appeals court to say if POTUS can be sued

Link to tweet

Judge seems to reject argument from Trump attys that NY AG is so biased, case shud be thrown out. “The allegations are what they are.”

Link to tweet

For the last 20 minutes or so this is what trump can see from the front of OUR White House compliments of @maddogpac and @TrueFactsStated

Link to tweet

[BumRushDaShow]

12. Fahrenthold: "They say sitting presidents can't be sued in state court"

Isn't that how they eventually got Agnew to resign though (although in Agnew's case it became a federal prosecution)? He asserted the same thing ("couldn't be sued" while a sitting VP) and as the case moved forward, he eventually copped a plea that included his resignation (and was eventually formally charged and got a no contest plea after that). The guy who took him on just died last year.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. Politics: Judge in Trump charity lawsuit appears skeptical of president's arguments for dismissal

.@realDonaldTrump’s attys sought to dismiss a lawsuit alleging Trump misused his charity. The judge was...skeptical.

Link to tweet

Politics

Judge in Trump charity lawsuit appears skeptical of president’s arguments for dismissal

By David A. Fahrenthold
October 25 at 2:45 PM

NEW YORK — A lawyer for President Trump on Thursday asked a New York state judge to throw out a lawsuit alleging that Trump violated charity laws — arguing that any mistakes made at the president’s charity were too minor to merit such a case.

But Judge Saliann Scarpulla appeared skeptical of their arguments, saying that the Donald J. Trump Foundation was still required to comply with all charity laws, including several that New York’s attorney general alleges the foundation broke.

At the hearing in state court in Lower Manhattan, Alan Futerfas, a private attorney for Trump and his three eldest children, said it was wrong for New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood to accuse them of “waste” at the foundation. None of the Trumps, he said, had ever used the charity’s money to pay for dinner, a vacation home or travel.

“There are no dinners charged to the foundation. There’s no travel, there’s no cars .?.?. nothing like that,” Futerfas said. Later in the hearing, he returned to the theme: “Travel to Paris — that’s waste, your honor. Your honor knows what waste means.”
....

David A. Fahrenthold is a reporter covering the Trump family and its business interests. He has been at The Washington Post since 2000, and previously covered Congress, the federal bureaucracy, the environment and the D.C. police. Follow https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

To the Honorable Judge presiding over this case & the misuse of trump charities by @IvankaTrump, @EricTrump & @DonaldJTrumpJr & @POTUS please look back to the 1980's:

When @Realdonaldtrump was chin deep in concrete:

Link to tweet